


take my heart (pin it to your skin)

by biochemprincess



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 13:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3693875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biochemprincess/pseuds/biochemprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that Jemma Simmons doesn't believe in soulmates, in fact she does. It's just not appealing to her. Because she really can't imagine why anybody's last words to her would be "Take it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	take my heart (pin it to your skin)

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this tumblr prompt: soulmate au where instead of your soulmates first words to you written on your skin it’s their last words you ever hear them say so you don’t know who your soulmate is until you lose them.

It's not that Jemma Simmons doesn't believe in soulmates, technically speaking she does. It's just not appealing to her.

The concept of being bound to another person by fate, somebody you don't even know, is nothing she wants to support in any way.

She doesn't believe in fate, doesn't believe that fate cannot be changed by you own actions.  _Nothing is set in stone_ , the scientific part of her brain whispers, _everything can be changed_. And this is what she's aiming for.

"You're going to grow out if eventually. When you meet your person, you'll know." Her mother always tells her. Jemma doesn't think she'll ever 'grow out of it'.

She thinks about all of this in the middle of her room, as she lies flat on her back, staring at the ceiling and gently running her fingers over the words on the inside of her left arm. They are always the same, have never changed in her whole life. The writing is a little shaky, like somebody wrote it down in a hurry. Those two words echo in her head and if she concentrates enough, she imagines it's not her voice saying them.

Maybe the universe is pulling a prank on her. Writing words on her body, when there is nothing and nobody to match them. Maybe she's a little afraid of it too, that nobody will ever be an equal to her and she'll be alone forever.

Because Jemma really can't imagine why anybody's last words to her would be "Take it."

 

***

 

Some days she is considering that Fitz might be her soulmate. It would fit, she thinks more than once. Since they had been paired up for chem lab the year before, they had become friends and to Jemma, he is her best friend, the most important person in her life.

But the more often the thought crosses her mind, it also raises another significant question: Jemma has never seen Fitz' tattoo. 

The most common placements, his hands and arms, are completely blank. But then he'd always done his best to cover his upper body. If she thinks about it, she's never seen him without a shirt, not even when they were at a near lake last summer - he had claimed to easily get a sunburn without it.

They are sitting on the bed in her room, watching some movie when she's finally brave enough to ask. She can't foresee his reaction, the soulmate-tattoos are something very private. You don't share it with anybody. But they are not anybody to each other.

"Would you show me your tattoo?"

"What?" Fitz almost chokes on the word. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"It's not unusual to lack the marking, if that's what you're afraid of." During some of her research, she found out that it's not uncommon for people to not have them. It was also in the realm of possibility to gain it later in life, if you aren't born with it. 

"I have one." He interrupts her thoughts.

"Where?" she asks before she can stop herself.

Hesitantly he gets off the bed. Fitz fumbles with the seams of his sweater and the shirt underneath, pulling them up to his chest. 

Her breath catches. Never before had she seen anything resembling this.

Fitz' rib cage is over and over tinted with black words in a neat handwriting. It's always the same word, again and again, tracing the pattern of lungs on his body.

_'no.'_

The word is simply everywhere. It almost looks like art.

"Fitz ---"

"I know." He pulls down his clothes again, crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively. "It has always been like this and I don't know why. Nobody knows."

Jemma feels the sudden urge to touch his tattoo, but doesn't allow herself to.

"What do you think it means?"

"I have no idea."

(The plain fact that their markings could match, goes unnoticed by both of them. But they would find out together.)

 

***

 

When he holds up the mask and so intently tells her to hold on tight, she knows how this is going to end.

And Fitz knows too, she can see it in his eyes. He's done the math.

Maybe he knew even longer, planned it while she was sleeping. She can't let this happen. There's no universe in existence where she's not by his side, where she doesn't want to be by his side; multiverse - hypothesis be damned.

"No."

Is she saying it because she knows that her words are written all over his body or would she have said them anyway? Jemma doesn't know and she doesn't want to find out. She needs to find another way, this is can't be the end for them.

"You're more than that Jemma. I couldn't find the courage to tell you, so please, let me show you."

How long had he known it? How long had he been standing next to her in the lab, knowing that it would end like this? For how long had he kept his secret?

She wants to scream at him, tell him he's unreasonable, tell him to save himself.

But all words leave her, tears replacing every single one of them. A broken sob rips away from her throat.

_No. No. No. No._

Every kiss on his face, every single time she speaks those two-letter sequence, it feels like holding a pen and writing it on his chest herself. Jemma curses the universe for paring the up, curses it for taking him away like this - too soon and without warning. She clings onto him, but he removes her arms from his neck.

He pushes the button and she screams her soul out, fear cutting a path through her body.

 _Nothing is set in stone._   _Everything can be changed._ _  
_

It is all she can think about, she won't let fate win, not now. This is her fight and she won't back down.

Her left arm grabs his collar and she swims as fast she can, while his last breath fills her lungs.

 

***

  
(When he wakes from his coma the writing on his rib cage is gone, washed away by the ocean. He doesn't remember that there have ever been any words and she doesn't tell him. Hers are gone too.

She wakes one night during her Hydra Operation, pain burning through the scars on the inside of her left arm.

Fascinated, she watches as black ink magically appears, covering the faded out lines.

 _I love you._ Simple like that.

She doesn't know that many miles away the same words are burned into his skin the same moment, the same place.

Doesn't know they are meant to be said to each other one day, in a far away future.

Doesn't know that it will not be the first time they say it, but as familiar as breathing.

Not yet.)

**Author's Note:**

> Do you know how often I had to rewatch the medpod scene for this? Do you? This prompt is probably the most horrible thing ever, but I tried to end it on a hopeful note. This story is probably not how it was intended for, but yeah... I hope you like it, let me know what you think of it. :)


End file.
